i was just wondering,,,, 50%+ of our states revenue is generated by mining royalties and has done so for years. and a quick and dirty calculation left us all outstandingly rich per capita,, so,,,,,, i know its not my business. but actually it is.. your taking a part of my state and shipping it off overseas.

where is the money spent.... Obviously not on anything to do with mineralogy, geology or ecology.. so,,,,,,,,,, where is it?

where are these billions of dollars ending up, that benefit us.. can anyone at MRT name one school that has an outstanding mineral collection? at the very least? do you put anything back?

The way the current MRT build has smashed anyone at base level including small scale recreational prospectors with anything to do with geology, i suspect, absolutely none of it.

With a hand full of major mines left and limited reserves, i would think they would encourage exploration, even at even base level, today, rather than tomorrow. When the skill set has gone. in 50 years, where will this revenue come from? When our hand full of productive (major) mines are no more.

Im looking at the States treasury asset distribution and income at the moment. $1000 a year towards educating us (citizens protected under the constitution) would improve everyone's outcome. And account for the grand sum of 0.000001% of the money in. There is none of that at the moment.

Thanks for asking the question Philski. I note you have not had any answers yet. I would like to start by declaring I am not connected to any gov or business organisation. I'm just an enthusiast newby prospector.
I would say mineral royalties flow into 'consolidated revenue' also called 'the treasury' to be administered by the treasurer of the state. That means they are used for all state services along with revenue from the Feds including GST from all of us. Voters are always told this funds essential services like schools, hospitals, police, fire brigades etc. I understand the really big money sink hole is really government pension funds paid to all the people that once ran these services but have now retired.
This is the same problem that bankrupted General Motors and the city of Detroit. It could even be seen as a 'ponzi scheme' where the state has to keep growing in order to support all the people who run it now and those that once ran it. Once growth stops the first thing that happens is public servants get sacked.
These systems are not perfect and there are many contradictions. Our current gov wants direct flights to China but they didn't think of direct FIFO flights to WA during the mining boom. The relationship with the big miners is a political one where the Premier of the day gets down on his knees and pleads for the multinational corporation not to leave. The multinationals almost choose their own tax scale and know they are doing the state a big favour just by being here.
We have an almost fully globalised economy and on a 'little' island like Tas it does look contradictory. One of the other big issues I think we have is the so called 'social contract' has almost broken down. Its everybody for themselves and any benefits to the 'community' are secondary. Please note, this is a huge generalisation. The 'system' works for many people much of the time and its best if you can make it appear that it does work.
Those of us that get get out into the bush and see how its all connected are really lucky I recon. How often do you get treasurers and premiers reminding us of how connected the earth, the minerals and all flora and fauna are?

We love to whinge about MRT, but they do provide us with some fantastic resources.

Personally, I'd find it much harder to research without MRTmap and the digitised, online-searchable MRT library. Their historic mine maps database is also very useful. I'm sure these resources didn't make themselves available, someone had to do it.

'Not that this excuses selling people a $30 licence, telling them they have to have it, and it turns out the licence doesn't give you ownership of anything you find. Too close to fraud IMO.

I spoke to mrt about it and they have a tiny budget and punch above their weight for what they get to get the job done. I also met a parks guy asset management. They now control 52% of our state and again are drastically underfunded. Our education is the lowest in the entire country. Our health system is deplorable . it has always been like that. I've seen first hand our states polititions living the high life. Both sides in the game for personal gain. Thick skin and ducks backs should not be a prerequisite to become a representative of parlament